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Capita Symonds

St. Charles Community Hospital

Project Summary

Project
The newly refurbished, three-story healthcare facility will provide primary care and local community services ranging from injury treatment and dental surgery to general surgery and renal dialysis. The GBP 4.2 million project required Capita Symonds to determine an energy-efficient ventilation strategy, compliant with United Kingdom building regulations and sympathetic to the age and space limitations of the building, while improving the patient/staff experience. To accommodate these design challenges, Capita Symonds needed reliable modeling and energy simulation technology.

Solution
Using Bentley Hevacomp, Capita Symonds constructed a 3D energy simulation model to analyze and determine the frequency of overheating within the facility. The analysis identified overheating as a significant problem forcing Capita Symonds to rethink its servicing strategies for a cost-effective ventilation system that would optimize internal conditions for building users.

Outcome
Modeling the building and simulating its energy performance using Bentley Hevacomp allowed Capita Symonds to accurately predict overheating within various rooms of the Grade II listed U.K. building. Quantitatively demonstrating overheating as a significant problem justified the need for mechanical cooling and ventilation. Given the major cost implications of an electrical cooling system, Capita Symonds was forced to look at more cost-effective ventilation solutions to achieve optimal internal temperatures within the facility.

Software
Capita Symonds used Bentley Hevacomp’s CAD input program to model the hospital building. Using Bentley Hevacomp’s design simulation to analyze the frequency of overheating, the team determined that many parts of the building significantly overheated beyond the maximum recommended temperature of 28 degrees Celsius for more than 50 hours per year. Bentley software enabled Capita Symonds to quantitatively demonstrate the overheating implications to the Hospital Trust, justifying the need for mechanical cooling and ventilation and necessitating the team to rethink its servicing strategies for a more cost-effective solution.

Outcome/Facts:

Bentley tools enabled Capita Symonds to quantitatively demonstrate overheating frequency, justifying the need for some mechanical cooling, and necessitating the team to determine a more cost-effective, energy-efficient solution.

Capita Symonds used Bentley Hevacomp to model the building and analyze overheating frequency to determine whether natural ventilation was an optimal low-energy design solution.

As part of refurbishing the St. Charles Community Hospital facility, Capita Symonds evaluated energy-efficient design solutions to ventilate the historic building within environmental planning restrictions and space limitations to ensure optimal internal conditions for building users.